Bringing people together through the arts. A non-profit second-hand bookshop and arts venue in Kenilworth, Warwickshire. Patron: Warren Ellis (Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, Dirty Three)

The Tree House opened for business on 26 July 2013 – we have now been trading for a year! It’s been immensely tough at times, and will no doubt continue to be so, but here we are. It’s good not to be among the statistics in terms of businesses that fail in the first 12 months.

We celebrated our opening with a wonderful evening of storytelling from Stephe Harrop and jazz from Spicy Jazz (three of them at least). We have had more storytelling and more live music since then, and the music has to be one of the highlights of the place – a shame more people haven’t come to the gigs, but we’ll keep working on that. I am currently working on a programme of music for the autumn and winter.

The Tree House has developed thanks to a wonderful group of people (or rather, a group of wonderful people!) who give so much in terms of time and energy to it and to me, but who have created a great sense of community by being there regularly, getting to know each other, and making the place what it has become. It also could not have happened or survived without all the fabulous donations of books we have received and continue to receive. Storage has at times been an issue, such has been the generosity of local people – anyone who has used the loo will know that there is plenty of reading material in there! But the stock is now at manageable levels, and people are working very hard to get as much of it onto the shelves as possible and in some sort of order.

We would also not have survived had people not come and bought the books and come to our events. We seem to attract a very high percentage of lovely people, every day brings wonderful conversations and a lot of fun in the interaction between staff and customers.

So thank you to everyone who has made this adventure what it is – do come in today and have some cake and listen to some music (there are two Big Comfy Sessions being recorded while the shop is open) and buy a few books. All books are 30% off just for today. Hope to see lots of you there!